


How Thoughtful You Can Be

by RunawayStudent



Category: Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, OC Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 22:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20919713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunawayStudent/pseuds/RunawayStudent
Summary: Based on a discord OC exchange.Danielle experiences the troubles of being a women, and all Johnny wants to do is help. She may or may not let him.





	How Thoughtful You Can Be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheEmpressAR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmpressAR/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Danielle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16046717) by [TheEmpressAR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmpressAR/pseuds/TheEmpressAR). 

> Hi, Gia467 here! I'm working under an alternate account for purposes of fics that are not in my universe. All OC ecchnages and challenges will be posted here instead, as to not bog down my main account.

As if the teenage gender crisis wasn't enough in itself, as if boy problems and jealousy weren't enough, and as if feeling like an imposter in your own body wasn't enough to satisfy whatever being had inflicted this torment, there was now this. The pain. The feeling like her lower vertebrae might snap if she bent too far back, and the downright uncomfortable feeling of having a noticeable sensation of moisture where there should not be. This felt disgusting and awful and _ ...ugh. _

Danielle clutched at her stomach, whining rather pathetically into her multitude of pillows, the stuffed giraffe that Johnny had given her bearing the brunt of the pain-fueled squeezes. “I hate this… this hurts.” 

Lucille had been lingering in the open doorway, a mug of tea in her hand. Daniel –Danielle, rather– has requested the usual earl grey with milk and honey. Some things don't change.

“How're you holding up? Did the Advil help at all?” 

“Not really..” She breathed deeply in and out, a slight quake in her lungs. “ _ How  _ do you  _ do _ this every month?” The still-male part of Danielle's brain had trouble comprehending it all. 

Lucille smiled, feeling some semblance of pity. “You get used to it, eventually. One of those womanly burdens. Although not every woman has cramps like this, I remember getting them bad when I was your age.” 

Lucille’s first period had been both unexpected and unmerciful, and a school employee had been the only one to help her out at the time. Besides Lucille, the janitor woman had been the only one in the girls' room at the time it happened, undoubtedly wondering why she’d been sitting in the stall hyperventilating for ten minutes, and had quietly offered her a tampon over the stall door. 

Later, she had handed her an entire box during lunch break, adamant on reading the instructions properly. 

“You're in a better position than you could be,” Lucille stated, aware of the potential snafu that could have occurred at school instead of first thing this morning, where all Danielle had needed to do was walk from the bathroom and into bed. Within the next hour, the cramps had taken their inevitable toll on her daughter’s ability to walk. “I'm gonna get you a hot water bottle, it'll help the pain.” 

Danielle groaned for the umpteenth time, turning over and cursing every deity she could think of that could cause such a day of misery… and it was only 9:30; plenty more hours left to suffer still. 

Her phone, to which she regretted placing so close to her bed, rang out rather jarringly. With a temperamental huff she stuck her arm out, and without doing as much as looking towards it, reached out and pulled the receiver off the hook. 

“Hello…?” 

“Hey… you're not at school? You sleep in?” 

She sat up a little, the cramping in her gut an immediate deterrent for any more sudden movements. 

“Uh, I'm sorry?” 

“It's Johnny… we were supposed to have lunch today. It's Monday… school and stuff.” 

She closed her eyes. “Oh yeah... I uh, I don't feel well.” 

“Oh? You sick? You want me to bring you some soup? I can come over if you want, my mom makes really good soup for when you're not feeling good…” 

Johnny, going a mile a minute by now in his eagerness, failing to register her weak-voiced protests. 

“Really Johnny, it's alright… I don't have a cold.” 

“The flu?” 

“ _ No-o _ .”

“Food poisoning?” 

She sighed, mood dipping fast. “No, oh for god's sake Johnny... I've got my period this morning!”

There was a beat of silence, and she almost got the urge to hang up on him. 

“Oh.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, oh. And I'm in an incredible amount of pain, a pain that boys will never have to experience in this duration, so no, I will not be coming to school, nor will I be meeting you for lunch. I can barely leave this bed.” 

He let out a small, breathy laugh. “You're surprisingly sharp for this hour. So eloquent.” 

That earned him another roll of her eyes that he couldn't otherwise see. “Wish I could say the same for you. You can't take a hint, can you?” She wanted to get off the damn phone. 

“Sorry...” He scrambled for words rather feebly. “How about I come and bring you chocolate or uh, soup? Do you want some company? I could bring the homework that you missed.” 

She didn't know whether to feel overwhelmed or flattered by his willingness to be around her so frequently, but he definitely could not see her in this state. 

“Um, I don't know. I don't think so.” 

He sounded dejected. “Are you sure?” 

“I'm not exactly sociable right now… and my room is a mess.” 

“Oh, alright.” 

She sighed. “Maybe after school okay? Just not…  _ now _ or anything.” 

“Oh! okay then,” His upward, cheery inflection returned almost immediately. “I'll bring you something to eat.” 

She nodded. “Sure...” 

“Great, I'll be there by 3:30, okay?” 

“Alright.” 

She reached over again, hanging up in time to see her mother appear with a hot water bottle and some more aspirin, a water glass balanced between her fingers. She set the glass down first, handing Danielle the hot water bottle once she'd reached out for it. 

“That should help the cramps.” Looking at her bedside table, she eyed the phone. “Who was calling?” 

Danielle grimaced a little. “Johnny… from school.” 

“Oh? What'd he want to early?” 

“Just called to see why I wasn't at school.” 

The sensation of heat felt nice on her sore stomach, and in a pleasant realization, discovered she could move more comfortably now, the sharp pains from before encroaching into her midsection now dulling into an ominous ache. 

Lucille smiled. “Better?” 

Danielle nodded, another moment that thankfully didn't elicit any pain. “Yeah.” 

“Want some toast or something? It helps if you eat a little bit. Those pills might be hard on your stomach otherwise.” 

“Johnny’s gonna bring me soup.” She answered. 

A line appeared briefly between Lucille’s brows. “Now?” 

She realized her mistake. “No uh… later, after school.”

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, I told him I wasn't feeling well, and he said his mom makes great soup for when he's feeling sick, so he offered to bring me some.” 

_ “Oh.”  _

Her eyes were momentarily off her mother, watching the wind from outside sway the palm trees by the sidewalk. Danielle could recognize that tone; a mother who supposed her kid had a love interest that they hadn’t bothered to disclose yet, the telltale inflection of a curious parent that suspected a teenager’s budding romance.

“And my homework.” She added. 

“That's very nice of him.” she could hear the smile in her voice now. 

The sun was coming in through the blinds and creating a pleasant warm spot at the end of her bed. Somewhat hesitantly, she moved her feet closer, hoping to feel it. 

“Yeah… I know.” 

She felt a little drowsy now, with the sun warming up her bare feet and the pain coming through a little less intense, getting lesser by the hour; she was tired. She hadn't slept so well. “I might nap.” She said. 

Lucille nodded. “Good idea. How about I wake you at noon for lunch? You want some pasta?” 

Danielle tucked herself in more, thinking somewhat of Johnny now. Hopefully she didn't sound too harsh over the phone. She ought to apologize, maybe. 

“Sure,” She turned again, just enough to see Lucile at the door. “Thanks, ma.” 

“You're welcome.” 

Her door was closed, and she turned on her side again with the stuffed giraffe still in her hands as she stared out the window, watching the trees sway until her eyes got too heavy to keep open anymore. 

—

By mid-afternoon, the pain had subsided enough that she ventured out into the kitchen a few times, twice for more tea and once for cookies.

By the time she'd been thinking of going outside a little, or at least sitting on the balcony for some fresh air, there was another knock on her bedroom door. 

The combination of napping and staying in bed had warped her expectation of the time, and when Johnny stepped through the door, a tentative smile on his face and a brown paper bag on his hand, she nearly gasped at her own forgetfulness. 

“Oh! Johnny… right.” She looked to her bedside alarm clock, and he was indeed, right on time. She looked down at herself, somewhat self-conscious of her hair and no makeup. “Sorry I uh, I lost track of time… didn't realize it was 3:30 already.” 

Johnny was chipper, a real contrast to the moody, tired girl on the bed. “No problem,” he reached into the bag, setting down items on Danielle's dresser, one by one. “My mom’s creamy chicken soup, some buns from that Italian bakery you like, and for good measure, some chocolate.” 

He set that particular item down on her bedside table, right next to the telephone. A box, with a little yellow ribbon, name printed neatly on the front. 

_ Adele’s Chocolaterie & Ice Cream.  _

The name was familiar. She'd seen that storefront before when out in downtown Balboa but had ultimately decided that 75¢ per truffle was too lavish for her own wallet. 

“They're truffles… like chocolates. I don't know if you've ever been there, but they make really good sweets.” He was grinning, but without the usual smugness or charm, just a simple, dare she say positively adorable smile. The corners of her mouth tugged upwards to her cheeks. 

“Thanks, Johnny.” She opened the box up, the smell of cocoa and strawberries greeting her nose. It was wonderful. 

“There should be 10 in there. There's strawberry, champagne, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and something called Kaluha. She said it was a favourite.” 

She was pleasantly taken aback. “They look amazing.” 

Closing the box back up, she put it aside. In the past few hours, the hot water bottle had cooled and her teapot had been emptied, but the stuffed giraffe was still bundled up tightly by her side, her bed sheets in slight disarray from all the morning's movements. 

“Sorry my room is such a mess…” her hand went to her hair, curls slightly messy as if to complete the image of a woman caught off guard. “And me… I lost track of time.” She repeated.

“Hey, it's alright.” Johnny evidently wasn't bothered in the slightest, more attractive than put off. “You look cute.” He sat down, on the edge of her bed. “Are you feeling any better?” 

Well, she was now, if not before. She avoided the first words that came to her mouth, wanting to practically fly out with the perceived intimacy of the moment. Her hormones really were out of whack. 

“Yeah, feeling better now.” 

“Good.” 

“Did I miss much in school today?” 

“Not really… Tommy and Dutch both got detention.” 

She pulled a face. “What on earth for?” 

Johnny looked up to her ceiling, like the humour of the situation was getting to him, too. “He set a trashcan on fire… he and Dutch were messing around in class. I didn't see exactly what happened but the had a pretty impressive sized fire going by the time I had turned around. It was a bad day to be working with combustible matter.”

That made her laugh, no pain in that movement. either, she noted. “You're joking?” 

“Nope… we were supposed to be testing different forms of gasses for their reactions to heat. Mine popped…” She looked back at her, a humoured grin on his face. “They’d been messing around and somehow Tommy’s lab papers caught on fire and they threw it into the nearest bin… the one that apparently with a bunch of used wooden sticks in it,” He chuckled. “The idiots…” 

She covered her mouth. “Oh my god.” 

Johnny’s story made them both giggle, their laughter dissolving away into smiles after a few seconds, and Danielle once again felt that familiar pull in her chest. Beside her, she patted the spot on her bed. “Do you wanna... stay for a bit… since you came all this way?” 

There was a flash of surprise that lit up Johnny's features for a moment, probably caught off guard by her sudden offer of cuddling, but he didn't hesitate to move next to her. 

Sitting down beside her with them both propped up by her numerous bed pillows, he let his head lean sideways on her shoulder, and was pleased when the spot wasn't taken away. Instead, she turned, and a small kiss was pressed to his blonde hair. 

She really liked how he smiled at that, another cutesy, innocent smile that wasn't tainted by smugness or his own front of charming aloofness. It was sweet, genuine; she liked him this way. 

Johnny noticed a book. “Were you reading?”

“Yeah, a little bit.” She picks it up again. “Ever read it?”

He shook his head. “I don’t read much Jane Austen.”

She grinned, an idea forming. Maybe it was dumb, but whatever, she could offer anyway. “Can I read some to you?”

To her surprise, he looked like he was excited, or at least, happy she would offer such a thing. “Sure.”

With Johnny’s head resting on her shoulder, Danielle turned to the first page, despite being halfway through it already. 

Maybe she was being too mushy, neither her nor Johnny verbally recognized the display of sweetness that she'd held back before, but they didn't need to. Nobody had to know besides them. 

Johnny didn't mind that  _ Emma,  _ her book of choice, was something he would never be caught reading. 

Danielle didn't mind if the whole other level of intimacy between them.

It was nice just the way it was, and if Johnny cared enough to let his guard down, then so could she. For now it was just the two of them, cuddling on top of her sheets, Danielle reading her favourite book to someone special.


End file.
